Of course not. We are living in the 21st century. We know that the witches burned hundreds of years ago were really just old women who were disliked and feared by their neighbours. Perhaps they didn’t smile much, and were an easy target for others to take their anger out on when life seemed unfair.
We know that dancing doesn’t make the rain
come. We heard the weather forecaster on
the tv say something about areas of low atmospheric pressure.
Okay.
So you say you don’t believe in magic.
Now imagine that you have a really
important exam today. It will be crucial
in deciding your future. Your mum says
she’s sure you’ll do well, and you know that what she really means is, “You had
better do well after all the money I spent sending you to cram school.”
So on this most important and stressful of
days, what colour of pants are you wearing?
If they are red then, my friend, you were
lying to me. You do believe in
magic. And you are probably Chinese.
If you are Japanese then you may have eaten
“katsudon” the night before. So don’t
try and tell me that you don’t indulge in magical thinking.
I read quite a fun article this morning
about the superstitious practices followed by students in various countries to
help them pass exams.
Red is of course a lucky colour in China. And, according to the article, wearing red
underwear is especially lucky. If things
work out really well for you in China, people around you like to ask, “You
aren’t wearing red pants, are you?”
Katsudon is considered an appropriate food
in Japan when attempting something difficult, like playing in a sporting cup
final, or sitting an exam. That is
because the word “katsu” in Japanese means “to win.”
Interestingly, superstitions are not confined
to human beings. Animals have been shown
to exhibit superstitious behaviour too. In
a series of famous (and rather cruel) experiments done in the 1940s, behavioural
psychologist B.F. Skinner demonstrated that pigeons performed something like
rain dances too.
Skinner left the birds hungry and had a
gate to their food open at short, random intervals. Nothing the birds did could make the gate
open any faster. But soon they began
performing some actions like rain dances in the hope of making the gate open. Some birds wiggled their head in a set
pattern. Some birds spun their whole
bodies round in a circle in front of the closed food gate. It seems that they were expecting, or hoping,
that their ritual had the magic power to open the gate. So maybe superstition has a long evolutionary
history.
Or perhaps it is too simple to say that
behaving superstitiously is like believing in magic. You might put on red pants to help you to
focus your mind on the exam, rather than to tap into the mystical power of red
underwear. Eating katsudon might make
you feel good and give you confidence, even though you know that it will not
whisper the answers to you whilst digesting in your stomach.
Lots of studies have shown that taking
dummy medication can make patients feel better.
The ritual of swallowing a tablet can be as powerful as the chemical
effect of the drug. So maybe putting on
those red pants really did help you pass your exam. It’s not less superstitions we need. It’s just a better understanding of how to
turn them to our practical advantage.
Good luck to all students sitting an
English test soon. Putting 2,000 yen in
my hand is a powerful lucky charm which will greatly improve your chances of
success. Applications by email. Skype charms also available.
Vocabulary:
crucial – extremely important
(a) cram school – a school for
extra tuition, usually after regular school has finished in the evening
to indulge in something – to treat yourself
by doing something, especially if you should not do it (like drinking alcohol,
eating chocolate etc.)to confine – to restrict; to remit
cruel – very unkind
to wiggle – to move something back and
forward a little in a repeated slight movement
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